Pick Heaters Blog

Pick Heaters Blog

Pick Heaters has been an industry leader for over 75 years.  Read about applications, technical information and best practices provided by our experts.

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Pick's Kick

Learn about Pick Heaters interesting connection to college football.

Mark Brueggemann Steps into New Role as President

We’re proud to announce the appointment of Mark Brueggemann as our new President.

Direct Steam Injection Cooking for Soy Production

In the realm of soy-based product manufacturing, the utilization of direct steam contact cookers, also known as jet cookers, has yielded significant process improvements and enhanced product quality. These cookers can be used on soy protein foods like soymilk and yogurt. The adoption of direct steam contact cookers offers several advantages for soy product production.

Heating the Way: Pick Heaters – Direct Steam Injection Solutions for Pulp and Paper Processing

The pulp and paper industry plays a crucial role in our daily lives, providing essential products such as paper, packaging materials, and tissue products. However, this industry faces unique challenges, including energy consumption, process efficiency, and responding to environmental requirements. Enter Pick Heaters, a leading provider of innovative direct steam injection heating solutions for the specific needs of the pulp and paper industry.

Exploring the Efficiency and Benefits of Pick Desuperheaters

If you are looking for a simple, cost-effective, and reliable way to cool steam to within 10°F of saturation, you could benefit from Pick Desuperheaters.

What is Steam Hammer and How a Pick Heater Can Help

Pick Steam Injection Heaters are an ideal replacement for tank spargers and other heating methods that may be prone to steam hammer issues. If you are experiencing problems with steam hammer in your process heating system, consider using a Pick Heater to eliminate these issues and improve the overall efficiency of your system.

How Pick Heaters Can Meet Customers’ Specifications and Requirements with Customized Fabricated Heater Designs

What if your application requires a heater that goes beyond what would be considered a standard offering? What if you need a heater with a larger pipe size, a higher-pressure rating, a special alloy material or a different port configuration? Don’t worry, Pick Heaters has you covered with their customized fabricated heater designs.

Pick Custom Design: Innovative Process Solutions for Heat Transfer Applications

Are you in search of a reliable and cost-effective solution for your heat transfer requirements? Look no further than Pick Custom Design (PCD). PCD, a division of Pick Heaters, specializes in providing innovative process solutions for heat transfer applications.

Maintenance Tips for Steam Injection Heaters: Ensuring Efficiency and Reliability

Steam injection heaters play a critical role in various industries, providing efficient and reliable heating solutions. To ensure their optimal performance and longevity, regular maintenance is crucial.

Enhancing Food Processing Plant Safety and Efficiency with Steam Injection Heaters

One of the key aspects of the food industry is process heating, which is required for various purposes such as cooking, pasteurization, sterilization, and cleaning. One of the most effective and reliable methods of heating liquids and slurries in food processing plants is direct steam injection (DSI) heating.

The Importance of Using Steam Injection Heating in the Chemical Processing Industry

Steam injection heating has many advantages and applications in the chemical processing industry, where maintaining stable and precise temperature control is critical for product quality, production efficiency and operation costs.

Benefit of Precise and Accurate Temperature Control with Steam Injection Heaters

Direct Steam Injection (DSI) Heaters are systems that inject steam directly into a liquid or slurry to heat it up to a desired temperature. DSI heaters offer many advantages over other heating methods of heat exchange, but one of the most important benefits is their precise and accurate temperature control.

Choosing the Right Pick Direct Steam Injection Heater for Your Needs

When choosing a Direct Steam Injection Heater, there are a few factors you need to consider, including the type of liquid being heated, how much the liquid flow varies during operation or if you have a unique size or material requirements. Once you have considered these factors, you can start to narrow down your choices.

Innovation in Plant Sanitation

Pick Heaters used a unique approach to meet the requirements of a specific customer and in the process hit upon a system design with an unprecedented degree of utility. The system has since been duplicated and adapted for numerous other customers with similar needs.

Advantages of Direct Steam Injection to Process Pet Foods

One effective method to consider for processing heated pet food products or supplements is through the use of the Direct Steam Injection (DSI) System.

Benefits of Steam Injection for Starch Cooking

When considering a new process line, production facilities should examine the type of Direct Steam Injection Heater used. Many think of the jet cooking equipment as simply a high shear device, but that couldn’t be further from the truth, and when maximizing production, high shear isn’t always the best approach.

Facing the Limits of Indirect Heat Exchange (Part 1)

The challenges of heating fluids and providing a steady hot water supply are important to a wide range of industry types, and there are many solutions that engineers employ to meet those challenges. Not all solutions are equal, however; following a selection path designed to save up-front costs may not always be the best strategy. There are numerous factors to consider, including ones that may be less obvious.

Finding the Solution of Direct Steam Injection (Part 2)

The limits to indirect heat exchange examined in Part 1 become more significant as greater temperature or pressure is required for heat and hot water applications. In many cases, the solution for design engineers is to opt instead for direct steam injection (DSI).

DSI for Sanitation, Sterilization and Cleaning-In-Place

Among the most important aspects of any food, beverage or pharmaceutical processing operation is the ongoing assurance of sanitary equipment. Effective cleaning is the best defense against product contamination — something to be avoided not only for health and safety reasons, but also for its ability to impact brand perception and raise the specter of lawsuits and product recalls.

Improve Your Waste Grease Recycling Process with DSI

Most brown grease from waste traps has historically ended up as landfill, but recognition of its value for production of fertilizer, biodiesel and other products, as well as more stringent EPA regulations, are driving a trend of brown grease recycling.

Ensuring Food Safety with DSI

Sanitization is critical to food production. Food production machines need to be sterile, or the food could potentially become contaminated. There are many ways to ensure food safety, and among them is direct steam injection (DSI).

Gas Injection - Food’s Secret Ingredient

Food production is a process that must be hygienic from start to finish. From the utensils to the equipment to the packaging, everything needs to be clean to ensure that the product will be fresh and sanitary for the customer. One of the most important steps of this process is gas injection, which is used to both manufacture and package food.

Saving Money, Improving Efficiency with Direct Steam Injection

The most common method of transferring energy with steam is indirect heat exchange, which has a significant drawback. Due to the pressure drop as the condensate exits the trap, some portion is inevitably lost to flash evaporation. As the condensate is lost, system efficiency is impacted. There is an alternative method that is ideal for high-pressure systems: direct steam injection (DSI) which achieves 100% heat transfer efficiency.

Improve Jacketed Heating Systems with Direct Steam Injection

Steam still has an important role to play in jacketed heating, but a Direct Steam Injection (DSI) Heater provides the most precise and energy-efficient method for heating the jacket water to the desired temperature.

Why Direct Steam Injection Liquid Heating is the Preferred Choice for Many Industrial Applications

Customers have many choices for heating water, liquids or slurries, but Direct Steam Injection (DSI) Heaters should be at the top of the list of options for these challenging applications.

How to Calculate Your Steam Needs

Steam is capable of transferring a large amount of heat to materials used in food and beverage processing, and it can be precisely controlled to within narrow temperature ranges. It can be applied directly to the materials being heated (through direct steam injection or DSI), or it can be applied indirectly through the use of heat exchangers that incorporate plates or tubes to segregate steam and process fluid.

Benefits of Industrial Wastewater Treatment Using Direct Steam Injection

A Direct Steam Injection System can rapidly and accurately maintain temperatures for processing difficult materials, such as wastewater, and thereby increase the efficiency and reliability of the anaerobic digestion system.

Methods and Means

While digging through the Pick factory archives the other day, I came across a 14-page pamphlet titled Industrial Water Heating – Methods and Means. The booklet covered the basic methods of providing hot water for industrial uses. It also explained the difference between heating water through direct steam injection and the in...

Plant Sanitation-The Safe Way to Get Into Hot Water

An ongoing challenge faced by food industry customers is maintaining a reliable, yet safe plant sanitation system. This means making sure that all areas of the plant have hot water at the required temperatures regardless of load. Precise temperature control at the necessary volume needs to be available whether during peak load clean-...

Getting Into Hot Water–Indirectly

Previously, we compared two methods of heating water for plant sanitation, both involving DSI (direct steam injection). While the use of individual steam-water mixing tees offer many conveniences, there are some shortcomings with efficiencies and safety. The Pick alternative is the installation of a centrally located, Variable Flow h...

Direct Gas Fired Hot Water Heaters-Running on Empty

In this last in a series of Pick Blogs covering methods of heating water for plant sanitation, we take a look at direct contact hot water heaters. These systems typically incorporate a cylindrical stack with an internal diffuser near the top, a burner section and a water collection reservoir at the bottom. Water is sprayed onto the diffuse...

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